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Two Old Hands
Two Old Hands is the ninth episode of the first season of Shining Time Station. Plot The episode opens as a mail sack is tossed into the station from a passing train. Stacy, Matt and Tanya run to receive it, while Mr. Conductor appears and asks if there is anything for him. Matt receives a magazine, Stacy a letter, and Tanya a picture from her pen pal. Harry, from behind his workshop’s closed door, asks if there is anything for him. Mr. Conductor quickly disappears as Harry emerges from the workshop while Stacy looks through the mail pile. Finding nothing for him, Stacy asks Harry if he was expecting something. Harry replies that he wasn’t looking for anything in particular and leaves. Stacy thinks something is wrong and Tanya mentions the fact that it is Harry’s birthday. They all decide to throw him a surprise party, which Stacy explains is one where the person whose birthday is being celebrated doesn’t know about it. Tanya decides to give Harry a jump rope, while Matt decides to give him a baseball bat, but Stacy decides they ought to make an original present for him instead. The kids then go to the Jukebox to play some music to listen to while making the presents. In the Jukebox, Didi has overheard all the commotion about Harry’s birthday, and decides that the band should play a song he really likes. When the nickel finally drops, Tex suggests “A Railroader for Me,” and the band starts playing. By the time the song ends, Stacy and the kids have completed their presents. Harry (speaking through the closed door of his workshop) asks Stacy if she can play the song again, while Stacy and the kids try to hide the presents. When Harry comes out of his workshop, Stacy tries hard to keep the presents a secret from him. She suggests that Harry gets Schemer some Cheese Giggles for his vending machine from the storeroom, but Harry protests, saying he gave Schemer some earlier that morning. Stacy insists that he get more, and Harry leaves, commenting to himself that he must be getting old. Stacy suggests the kids find a box to hide the presents in, and Matt finds an old empty Cheese Giggles box on the steps of Schemer’s arcade. They place their presents in the box, which Stacy then hides. Just then, Mr. Conductor appears, and says it is a relief that something is over. The kids rush over to him, asking what he is talking about, and he tells them about how the tender engines’ strike against Sir Topham Hatt ended, and how Percy almost got into an accident with Gordon. After several days of being shut up in the shed, Sir Topham Hatt visits Gordon, James, and Henry. He tells the three that he hopes they have learned they are not as important as they thought. He informs them that there is a new tank engine named Percy and that Edward and Thomas ran the main line well by themselves. However, he is willing to let them out on the condition that they be good and do not complain about shunting any more. All three agree and they quickly resume their duties. '' ''Sir Topham Hatt then speaks to Thomas, Edward, and Percy and, as a reward for their hard work, allows them to play on the branch line for a few days. Thomas happily collects Annie and Clarabel while Edward and Percy go and play with freight cars in the yard. Edward and Thomas leave and Percy is left alone where he enjoys watching the larger engines go by. He also enjoys being cheeky to them. '' ''Later, after doing some more shunting, Percy heads back to the yard, but the points are against him. Percy was so eager to work, he had become careless and forgot that Edward had told him to whistle when he got to the signalbox so that the signalman would know he was there. Suddenly he sees something that does make him whistle in panic; Gordon, on the same line, heading towards him full speed with the express. Percy is horrified, but cannot do anything and closes his eyes as Gordon gets closer. Luckily Gordon applies his brakes and stops just in time. However, by now a frightened Percy has begun to move and, intending to run away, begins running backwards. '' ''Percy runs straight through Edward's station and is so frightened he runs straight up Gordon's Hill without stopping. After he descends the hill, Percy quickly becomes tired, but, as his crew had jumped out when they saw Gordon, could not stop. Finally a signalman sees that Percy is in trouble and sets the points into a siding, where Percy lands in a big bank of earth. By now, Percy is so tired he does not care where he stopped. '' ''Gordon arrives and congratulates Percy on starting quickly and stopping a potential accident. Percy apologises for his previous cheekiness and Gordon pulls Percy out from the bank. '' ''Percy quickly settles into his new role as station pilot. Although he never loses his penchant for cheekiness, he now knows to always be careful when he goes on the main line. When the story ends, the kids are told that all the other engines just had to get to know Percy in order to make friends with him. Tanya suggests Mr. Conductor should do the same with Harry, but Mr. Conductor is still nervous about how he’ll react to the idea of an eighteen-inch high man wanting to be his friend. Stacy returns after successfully hiding the box, but just then Harry’s voice is heard, and Mr. Conductor quickly disappears. Harry arrives with a second box of Cheese Giggles, and asks Stacy to tell Schemer that he can carry his own boxes from now on. Harry still feels grumpy about how old he is getting, and heads back to the workshop. Mr. Conductor suddenly appears on the information booth behind Harry's back and greets him, but disappears before Harry can turn around, and Harry thinks he's hearing things. Just as Harry reaches the workshop door, Mr. Conductor re-appears on Stacy’s desk, and when Harry turns around he can’t believe his eyes. Mr. Conductor, thinking that he gave a bad impression, quickly disappears. Harry comments yet again that he must be getting old, because now he’s seeing things. Mr. Conductor re-appears on the information booth with a wrapped gift in his hand, and says he tried, but the kids encourage him to keep trying. Matt asks who the present is for, and Mr. Conductor says it is to cheer Thomas up after he had been in trouble. He then tells the story of how Thomas got conceited when he took his driver’s comments literally and ended up crashing a stationmaster’s breakfast! Thomas' driver jokes that Thomas could almost run his branch line without him. Thomas does not realize he is joking though and becomes very conceited. He brags to Percy and Toby later at the sheds and both tell Thomas that he needs a driver, but to no avail. '' ''The next morning, a fire lighter came and started the engine's fires. Thomas woke up as the warmth spread through his boiler and then realised his opportunity to run by himself and prove Percy and Toby wrong by stopping and wheeshing in front of them. Thomas slowly started moving along the track, but did not know that he was only moving because a careless cleaner had fiddled with his controls. Thomas quickly realises he has made a huge mistake, but cannot do anything about it without his driver. At the end of the tracks sits the stationmaster's house. Thomas crashes through the front window just as the family was sitting down to breakfast. Plaster and broken glass was everywhere - the stationmaster's wife was furious with Thomas for ruining their breakfast. After workmen laid rails through the garden, Donald and Douglas arrived and pulled Thomas free of the house. Thomas' front has been badly damaged by his visit and is in disgrace. '' ''Back at the shed, Sir Topham Hatt is furious with Thomas for his silly actions and tells him that he is going to have to spend a long time at the works being mended. While he is away, a Diesel railcar is going to be brought in to run his branch line. When the story ends, Mr. Conductor tells the kids that there are some things that nobody can do on their own. The kids then go with Stacy to the platform. Mr. Conductor then hear's Schemer's voice and disappears. Schemer gives himself a big fanfare, but nobody responds, which makes him suspicious. He starts to walk around the waiting room, commenting how nobody is on duty in a public place. When he sits down on Stacy’s desk, he finds a box of Cheese Giggles behind it. Schemer, unaware that the box contain the presents Stacy and the kids made for Harry, carries it to the Arcade to put some Cheese Giggles bags in his vending machine. He then sees the other box of Cheese Giggles on the steps of his arcade and decides that he will take the box he is carrying home, while the other he'll put in the vending machine. He then leaves, unaware of the surprise he is about to get. Matt and Tanya return with more presents for Harry, but Mr. Conductor appears and asks where the birthday cake is. The kids ask what he is talking about, and Mr. Conductor asks them to look down the Anything Tunnel. The tunnel then shows an animated video of how to make a cake. At the end of the video, the kids ask where the cake from the Anything Tunnel is, and Mr. Conductor magically produces it. The kids suggest they hide the cake, while Mr. Conductor leaves to do his dishes. Stacy returns to the station and looks behind her desk to find the Cheese Giggles box with their presents gone. She sees the second box standing on the arcade floor, but Tanya only finds Cheese Giggles inside. Stacy then realizes that Schemer took the box of presents by mistake, and the kids begin to panic. Just then, Schemer returns with the box of presents, and asks where Stacy was ten minutes ago, while Stacy and the kids stare strangely at the box in his hand. Schemer asks what everybody is staring at and Stacy and the kids all point to the box. Schemer explains that he thought the box had Cheese Giggles in it when, to his surprise, there was only some “artsy-craftsy stuff” inside. Harry emerges from his workshop after hearing Schemer’s voice, and explains to him that he should do things for himself. Stacy intervenes, saying that the ticket puncher is broken and to send it out for fixing, but Harry says he’ll fix it himself and walks away. Schemer then asks what Harry was talking about and once again brings up the fact that the box in his hands was not a box of Cheese Giggles. Tanya mentions that the box is full of birthday presents, and she, Stacy and Matt all tell Schemer about Harry’s birthday. Schemer mentions that he has never been to a surprise party, and encourages Stacy and the kids to party without him, but they finally get him to stay. Stacy and the kids then retrieve their presents from the box, and Schemer realizes that he doesn’t have a present for Harry. Matt suggests he give him some nickels, but Schemer doesn’t like the idea of giving away money. However, when Stacy tells Schemer how much Harry loves to play the Jukebox, Schemer gives in. With the party arrangements settled, Stacy, Schemer and the kids assume their positions to surprise Harry. Stacy calls Harry out, and as he begrudgingly emerges from the workshop, they all shout “Happy Birthday!” Harry apologizes for his irritability, and thanks everybody for the party. As they celebrate, a passing mail train from Pelican Falls drops a sack at the entrance to the platform. Stacy retrieves it and finds the whole sack is full of birthday cards for Harry! Later, back in the workshop, Harry comments to himself that it was the best birthday party he ever had. Just outside the workshop door, Mr. Conductor is talking with Stacy and the kids, who still encourage him to meet Harry. Stacy suggests he talk about something they both love—trains. Mr. Conductor then goes into Harry’s workshop and greets him. Harry looks in his direction and is suspicious at first, and asks if he is real. Mr. Conductor confirms this, and the two begin to talk. Mr. Conductor mentions that he’s been at Shining Time since the President’s train ran along the Indian Valley Railroad. Harry mentions that he remembers working on that train. Mr. Conductor mentions he was on that train as well, as he was the Indian Valley’s special conductor. It turns out they were both on the same train and didn’t even know it, until now. Stacy and the kids, who have been listening in on the conversation, quietly leave the two to talk, confident that Harry and Mr. Conductor are now firm friends. Characters * Mr. Conductor * Stacy * Schemer * Harry * Matt * Tanya * Thomas (mentioned) * Gordon (mentioned) * Percy (mentioned) Thomas stories * Percy Runs Away * Thomas Comes to Breakfast Jukebox Band Segment Song * A Railroader and Me﻿ Cartoons & Songs * Baking a Cake Trivia * The shot of Tanya showing her pen pal’s picture to everybody was used in the original “clip show” title sequence. * To start “Thomas Comes to Breakfast,” Mr. Conductor does not use his whistle. Instead, he twirls his present to start the story. * In addition to Cheese Giggles, Schemer stocks Potato Boom-Booms and Corn Whammies in his vending machine. * This is the first episode to feature a story from Series 2 of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. * This is the first episode to feature a story from Series 2 of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. The use of "Thomas Comes to Breakfast" caused some continuity errors for US audiences as Donald and Douglas, the Scottish Twins, would not receive a proper introduction until the episode “Sweet and Sour” during Shining Time Station's second season. Additionally, Toby the Tram Engine would not be introduced to US audiences until the episode “Ring in the Old” later in the first season. Finally, the diesel railcar referred to in the story, which was Daisy, would never feature in a story during Shining Time Station's original three seasons, although stories featuring her would eventually be released on American video. * The song “Baking a Cake” was released on US video as part of "Shining Time Station Singsongs Vol. 1." * Harry’s recollection of the President’s train is accompanied by footage of the Chessie System’s ex-Reading Railroad steam locomotive #2101. * This episode marks one of the few times any attempt is made to explain Mr. Conductor's backstory. Goofs * The end credits are from A Place Unlike Any Other. 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